Monday, July 18, 2016

Over the weekend, I saw reports of a coup in Turkey, quickly followed
by reports that it had failed. This morning, I am seeing speculation
that the country's Islamist leader, Recep Erdoğan, may have faked
a coup. At the very least, he plainly sees the opportunity to purge
Turkey of opposition and consolidate his power, as an article
in the New Yorker explains. That article ends on the
following ominous note:

During his speech last night at the
Istanbul airport, Erdoğan referred to the attempted coup as a
"gift from God." Erdoğan is usually a precise speaker, but in
this case, perhaps in his excitement, he showed his cards. With the
coup attempt thwarted, he will no doubt seize the moment. In recent
months, Erdoğan has made little secret of his desire to rewrite
the constitution to give himself near total power. There will be no
stopping him now. [format edits]

As an added bonus,
Erdoğan, is blaming the events on a former ally (who lives in
Pennsylvania) and his followers in Turkey. Erdoğan has already
indicated he will ask for the cleric to be extradited from the United
States. His language
about that matter indicates that he will treat a failure to comply as
a betrayal. Has Erdoğan shown us "his cards," or is he really
just naming the obvious, that Turkey is finished as a semi-free
country, and with it, an alliance?

Indeed, I think it's worse than that: Erdogan has an excellent chance of getting the U.S. to fork over that cleric, even if there is incontrovertible evidence that the latter had nothing to do with the coup, staged or otherwise.